Padres Deal Gyorko to Cards For Jay

As the 2015 Winter Meetings commence in Nashville, so does the Padres’ offseason trade activity.

On Tuesday morning, it was confirmed that the Padres had dealt infielder Jedd Gyorko to the St. Louis Cardinals for outfielder Jon Jay. It was said that St. Louis will receive additional cash considerations as a part of the deal.

Gyorko, who made his major league debut with San Diego, hit .293 through three seasons with the club, with scattered minor league stints along the way. The 26 year-old second baseman signed a 5-year $35M deal with the club.

On San Diego’s end, the team picks up a gem in longtime St. Louis outfielder Jay, who served six seasons with the Red Birds. Signed through 2016, Jay hit .287 lifetime with the Cardinals, with a .354 on-base percentage and 227 RBI.

With the departure of first baseman Yonder Alonso and the expectation that Wil Myers could fill in nicely at that spot, fans can expect to see Jon Jay get a decent amount of playing time come spring of 2016.

Comments

When I first saw this deal this morning I was thinking that if the Padres could offload Gyorko’s contract they might be making a run at resigning Upton. (I actually think he wants to stay in SD with his brother but the padres still have to pay him) But with the Pad’s picking up almost half of Jedd’s remaining contract that now seems unlikely. I just cant see the upside to this trade. Yes the Padres need a LH bat and yes they need OF help but a 1 year rental of an older player when you had Jedd for cheap for a couple more years doesn’t really make sense. I think it helps the Padres short term but really ties their hands with salary issues for the next few years and you never want to be paying players that are no longer on your team.

D68Soldier

I think this is a good trade for the Padres. Gyorko never materialized as the hitter (270+ AVG) we hoped for. Spangenberg gives the Padres a true lead-off hitter and provides some excitement in his play. I am a little worried that the projected starting OFs are 30+ years old but they do have some up and comers in the system. Now time to get a SS as a stop gap for about three years with the third year as a team option. If they can trade Shields and sign Mike Leake (Fallbrook native) for about 12-15M a year and Kenta Maeda with Cashner at 3 or 4 would make a decent rotation.